Q. Are 32-bit operating systems supported in Azure?
A. Azure is built on Hyper-V which fully supports 32-bit operating systems however there is more to Azure than just the hypervisor. Several key components support only specific OS versions such as images in the marketplace and the Azure VM agent itself. Primarily the only supported operating systems in Azure are 64-bit as outlined in https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4021388/support-for-32-bit-operating-systems-in-azure-virtual-machines. Note there are two exceptions to the 64-bit rule, 32-bit Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 however both of these have specifics to their support and limitations. For Windows Server 2003 the details of the support are outlined in https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3206074/running-windows-server-2003-on-microsoft-azure which includes:
- Bring your own images
- Bring your own license
- No support for the Azure VM agent
Hopefully everyone should be using a modern operating system so there will be no need to touch a 32-bit operating system.
